Catching up with Houston Symphony maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Houston Symphony conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada in his dressing room after a performance at Jones Hall

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Houston Symphony maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada has been music director of the symphony for five years now, leading the city’s largest collection of musicians through seasonal lineups that reflect his flair and passion for the classics. He recently spoke to Luxe Life after a performance, discussing how to connect modern audiences to classic works, the challenges of conducting and his hopes and dreams in innovating classical music.

Q: The symphony just performed Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony for the third time this weekend. How did it feel?

A: There are moments you feel the audience is extra connected. At the end, there was some more coughing and some noise. Yesterday, it was more quiet. Maybe we projected stronger feelings yesterday and people felt more connected. It’s a big challenge. Every time we play, we try to achieve the same connection and give the same feeling, regardless if you’re tired. It’s exhausting having so much music to play with so little time to rest.

Q: You make a lot of wonderful expressions when you conduct. Is this something you’re conscious of while you’re making music?

A: If you want me to describe my face, I’m not the right one to ask. It’s something that happens for the music. It’s nothing I prepare. It’s neither a technical skill nor choreography. Tonight, it happens one way, another night I might have a different face. It’s hard to tell because it’s the music that dictates the emotion of what I need to connect, or what I need to express. I never do choreography. I never practice moving like this or that. It’s all based on what the music asks.

Q: During the Mahler, there is a five-minute pause, during which you had a video play. Is this a typical approach to this section of the symphony?

A: Every symphony is different. When he premiered some of the symphonies, he only played one or two of the movements during a single concert. Mahler changed the concert experience. He hated the overture being seen as music before the real music. As soon as I come out and start playing the overture, he said, the doors need to be closed. Nobody comes in anymore. From the first note, the concert starts. One hundred years ago, that was not the case. Back then, you’d talk. The audience was facing each other. It was a social experience. People would talk, mostly about what was happening.

He wanted the audience to be able to absorb the music. “Let’s digest the music, take five minutes, and then keep moving.” What happened in his time, I don’t know. Did they start talking? They did leave? They’ve done 15 minutes in the break before.

“Should I do a real break?” I thought. No, let’s do the five minutes and include the element of the video. That would help us bridge the two movements. Because I believe this helps us to connect even more with the piece and the lyrics.

The first night, we didn’t project a video. That’s when I knew we needed the video. After three or four minutes, people were being quiet. It was too much sitting there and nothing happening other than the chorus coming in, which was not very interesting.

Q: What motivates you to innovate and explore these kinds of elements in your symphony shows?

A: Classical music needs to be more open. To move, to try, to risk. Not just sitting, playing and leaving. For many pieces, that’s more than enough. There are plenty of ideas that could be included and connected to the experience that makes the whole concert even more interesting.

It’s not about changing symphonies. It’s, “keep going.” Keep exploring. Some ideas of mine are too crazy or too expensive. I’m trying to find those moments where the experience of classical music isn’t, with all due respect, as boring as it usually is, where you sit, you sleep a little bit, you clap at the end.

Wei-Huan Chen is theater critic for the Houston Chronicle. He also writes about classical music, opera and the performing arts scene. Before arriving at the Chronicle in 2016, he worked for the Indianapolis Star, the Lafayette Journal & Courier, the Needham Times and the Boston Phoenix. Chen is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2016 National Critics Institute Fellow at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. He has won several awards for his writing on the arts, including First Place from Indiana Associated Press Media Editors for Feature Writing.